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YAPC would like to welcome Nathan Rhodes to the blog today. He is here to share some information about his book The Mysterious Box from Dark Ridge. If this looks like something you would enjoy reading, please go pick up a copy! This book will be on sale Sept 8-15!

Book Description:

Joe is an eighteen-year-old who works hard as a coal miner. He lives alone and rises early with the sun to enjoy the beauty around him. He lives a simple life, until one day there’s a terrible disaster in the mine. He survives the chaos but, finds a box buried inside the broken walls of Dark Ridge Mine #1. Joe takes this box home, opens it…and wakes up three days later. This costs him his job and as he soon discovers the box has strange powers and so much more. This discovery leads him to elicit the help of his crazy Uncle Ulus, who is not so crazy after all, and it leads him to the lovely Cassandra. She’s not just pretty and kind, but there’s something “magical” about her, too. Throw in some intergalactic bad guys with superpowers, an underground shelter, and the metamorphosis that’s happening with Joe every time he places his hands or eyes on that mysterious box, and buckle up for the ride of the twenty-first century..

I got ready to meet Cassandra. It was six and I need to get to the boutique. I thought of my dear friend and stepped through the curtain. I arrived there right behind Casandra as she walked into a crowd of people.
The crowd had gathered around a TV located in the front of the boutique. I watched as she walked up as close as possible to the TV.
What’s going on? I got closer. Then I overheard a newsman on the TV say, ‘More breaking news has just came into the newsroom. Let’s go to reporter Andre Wilks who is reporting live from the scene. Andre, can you hear me?’
“Yes, thank you John. We have just learned that NORAD has dispatched yet another squadron of fighter jets to the mountains over Eastern Kentucky. These planes are being dispatched for a twofold mission. The first leg of their mission is to help in the defense of the small mountain Town of Coal Mountain. The second leg is to help capture or bring down the foreign aircraft that are terrorizing this mountain town. This is investigative reporter Andre Wilks CMNN
Action ten news.”
I couldn’t believe what I saw on the TV. Two F-16 fighter jets were chasing three funny looking spaceships in the skies above Coal Mountain. The newsman on the television had the boutique buzzing with excitement.

As I walked up, I looked at Cassandra and said, “Hi. I’ve been looking forward to our date tonight.”
Cassandra didn’t greet me with a loving look, or a soft kiss to my cheek. She acted and appeared to be distance as she said, “Hi, how was your day?”
Then the reporter broke in again. “This is John Wallace Action Ten News. Our investigative reporter Andre Wilks has a live interview with one of the pilots that have been chasing the weird looking spacecraft over
Coal Mountain. Let’s see if we have that feed now.”
“Thank you John, I’m standing here with one of the brave pilots, Captain Travis Ward who has spent the last few hours chasing these strange looking aircraft in the skies above Coal Mountain.”
“Captain, would you care to tell our viewers what kind of aircraft these are? Are they Russian, Chinese, or North Korean?”
Captain Ward stared into the camera. “In my twenty-plus years of flying I’ve never encountered an aircraft comparable to those things up there. They toyed with us several times. At one point, I had my F-16 at Mach two when the aircraft I was chasing streaked off out of sight. I looked around in the skies everywhere for it and suddenly it appeared again right behind me. How it did that I don’t know. His actions showed me that he had no intentions of engaging our planes in combat or getting in a dog fight, but the maneuver also made it obvious that our planes
were no match for what he had.”
“Captain Ward, are you saying that our enemies have faster and better planes than we do?”
“No!” the captain answered. “I’ve never seen technology like what those aircraft were using on this planet anywhere.”
“Is the U.S. Airforce going to be able to bring this situation under control before a deadly accident happens in the skies above Coal Mountain?”
“Listen, we have to be smart about this. If they have the technology to build aircraft like that, what type of weaponry are they carrying? If we don’t go about this correctly this could escalate rapidly into a very serious situation.”
“There you have it and you heard it first on this station. This is investigative reporter Andre Wilks CMNN action ten news reporting live from Coal Mountain. Now back to the studio.”
“Thank you, Andre. Stay tuned. As developments warrant we’ll break in and bring you more details. For now this is John Wallace CMNN Action Ten News.”
“I wonder if Uncle Ulus was watching that. Those were some crazy looking aircraft. They were so fast. It looked to me like they’re from
another world. I’d about bet on it.”
“I’d love to hear and learn more about them,” Cassandra said as she walked away from the TV.
“If I know Uncle Ulus, if he heard that report he’s asking his friends in the military a whole lot of questions.”
I looked at Cassandra and asked, “Are you ready? There’s a restaurant I know that you would really enjoy that I’d love to show you.”
“Really,” she asked.
“Can we take your little Miata? I’d love to drive it with the top back up through the mountains in case those neat looking aircraft come flying overhead once again.”
“Sure, we can take my car. Where are you taking me tonight?”
“Well, the place I had in mind is my favorite pizza place in the whole world. They make the best pizza pie. It’s located on top of one of the highest mountain peaks in Coal Mountain.”
“What’s the name of this restaurant?”
“It’s called, the Hitching Post. It’s been in business at that location as an Inn or restaurant for over 200 years. Back in the day, everyone in the mountains rode horses. Customers would tie their horses up to the hitching post out in front of the restaurant before they went inside to eat. That hitching post has become its trademark down to this day. So the name Hitching Post has stuck to the restaurant for over two hundred years.”
Cassandra didn’t seem quite herself today. She was quiet, hardly saying a word on our ride up to the Hitching Post. We arrived and went inside. I asked the hostess if she would seat us over by the big windows so we could oversee the scenic beauty of the valley. We got seated and the waitress came to our table and took our order.
“Bring us the house special, please. A pizza with everything on it but no green peppers.”
I enjoyed being with Cassandra and this setting made it even better. “What’s on your mind? Don’t you like it up here?”
She took my hand and looked deep into my eyes and with a sincere voice said, “It’s beautiful up here. I also loved the ride up the mountain. It was beauti—”
Cassandra’s words were interrupted as the entire room shook from the sounds of an F-16 fighter jet that roared overhead close to the roof of the restaurant. It was chasing one of those aircrafts once again.
The waitress walked up with our food and asked, “Wow! Did you see that? That was so cool! What kind of aircraft can travel that fast?” She
smiled and walked away.
I started eating my pizza. I looked over and noticed that Cassandra was just sitting there, picking at her pizza. Her mind was a thousand
miles away. “Is the food bad? Do you feel OK?” I asked.
She looked up at me with those green eyes, took my hand again and said, “I want to be completely honest with you, Joe. I care for you, but I don’t want our friendship based on lies and false stories. Please don’t be upset at me but I haven’t been completely open with you. There’s a lot about me that you should know.”
“What? Have you found someone else that you’d rather be spending time with?”
“Joe, you are the only true friend I have. There’s no one else but…before I say anything else, could we find a private place to talk?”
“Why?”
“I don’t feel comfortable sharing my feelings with you out in the open in this restaurant in front of total strangers. We need to speak openly and honestly with each other about everything. I want you to be completely honest with me and I will do likewise.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

From the Author: I was born on January 29th. In my early teens I wrote my first manuscript about a Space Odyssey. Everyone who read it loved it but, the manuscript was lost. I don’t know what happened to it. Many years have passed by since then but, that experience has inspired me to start writing again. I published my first book in 2015,”Murder Seen through the Eyes of a Child.” Now I can say how much I’ve really enjoyed writing my latest release, “The Mysterious Box from Dark Ridge.”

Those early writing seeds that were sown long ago have definitely spouted up once again. I hope everyone who reads one of my books really enjoys them. l wish I could hear from every reader, that would be great!

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